UTVB3130 Recent Trends in Development Assistance Course description

The course is open to students who have completed at least a one-year introductory course in Development Studies at either OsloMet, the University of Agder or equivalent courses at other universities/university colleges in Norway or abroad.

Education, knowledge and competence are crucial elements in all theories and strategies for development. The course will focus specifically on the role of education in processes of social change and sustainability, as they have played out in history. Religion is an important foundation in many people's lives and often influences educational systems. Religion also works as an educational praxis on its own terms, as part of people's culture and ethos. The course will focus specifically on how religion is a crucial element in educational traditions, both historically and in contemporary societies. The course will take into consideration how education enables individual empowerment and stimulates national consolidation and poverty reduction. Further, it will be studied how diversity, modernization and globalization processes change education systems and give education new roles and importance in society.

Religion may be one important part of people's identity, and a growing attention is given to its uses and misuses in the context of politics and political conflicts. The course will highlight the ways in which religion interplays with various dimensions of social organization and diversities, such as class, caste, gender, and ethnicity. The relationship between religion and development is also a topic of growing interests in newer research. Importance will be given to how globalization also reshapes the meaning of religion in the development processes.

Principal themes are:

a. Tradition, diversity, modernity and the role of education

The analysis will take up connections between concepts of knowledge, culture and education systems. It will further discuss the influence of educational traditions on quality and relevance on education systems in contemporary times.

b. Education, national identity and the challenge of globalization

The analysis will focus on the relationship between education and state power under the challenge of globalization, in the light of knowledge and competence as crucial factors in the competition for power in modern society.

c. Rights perspectives and 'Education for All'

Analysis of education in international cooperation and how Rights perspectives can be ensured.

d. Tradition, modernity and the role of religion

The analysis will focus on the content of different religious traditions in regions in the South. It will address how religion works as part of the educational systems, and their reciprocal influence in shaping the societies.

e. Religion, development and globalization

The analysis will focus on the connections between the presence of religion amongst many people in societies in the South, how faith-based organizations take part in development processes.

At the end of the course the student has obtained the following learning outcome:

Knowledge

The student

• has knowledge of central tendencies in the organization and aims of current development assistance, regarding:

• new actors in international aid
• aid and the Sustainable Development Goals
• the integration of international aid with other global concerns ("environmentalization" and "securitization")
• the "marketization" of aid
• the effects of aid in recipient countries

Skills

The student

• has the ability to analyse and compare current ideas and strategies for development assistance
• has the ability to analyse the interplay between different actors in development programmes
• can analyse the effects of aid in recipient countries

General competence

The student

• is able to formulate central issues regarding overall development objectives and strategies and modalities to achieve them
• is able to discuss how development assistance and its organization may impact positively as well as negatively negatively on recipient countries

The course will cover key issues of international development assistance as it is currently organized. It will focus on processes and trends internationally and in recipient countries. Focus will be on the way aid is organized and implemented today. These issues will be illustrated through empirical case studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The following themes will be included:

• Key actors in development assistance (non-traditional donors, multilateral organizations, for-profit actors)
• Aid and the Sustainable Development Goals (with an emphasis on health and education)
• New modalities of aid (budget support and performance-based aid)
• The "environmentalization", "securitization" and "marketization" of aid
• The effects of aid for recipient countries

There will be lectures and teacher-led seminars. Students are expected to participate actively in group work and discussions during seminars (the seminars are compulsory).

Activities with compulsory attendance

It is compulsory to attend the seminars. These are considered essential for developing skills and general competence, as they give the students the opportunity to verbalize, analyze and discuss key issues of the course. The group work on which the seminars are based require that the majority of students are present.

Students with undocumented absence from more than 25 % of these seminars cannot take the exam. Students who have attended less than 75 % of the seminars, but can document valid compelling reasons for all the absences, will have to submit a written paper on a given theme as compensation in order to be able to take the exam. The length of the paper shall be in the range of 2,000-5,000 words, depending on the number of seminars missed.

Students shall also take part in online discussions on Canvas, on topics from the course. Each student is required to post at least four contributions of a minimum of 50-100 words each. Taking part in an online discussion of the course contents ensures the active involvement of the students with the issues the course deals with, and thus enhances learning. Information on deadlines for posting and questions to respond to will be given at the start of the course. If a deadline is not met, the student will be given a new deadline. However, unless all;four posts have been posted by the last lecture/seminar (whichever comes last), the student cannot take the exam.

The course is assessed on the basis of an individual written home exam over four days, with a scope of 2,500 words +/- 10 %.;

Resit/rescheduled exam:

Resit/rescheduled exam;is;organised in the same way as the ordinary exam.;

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

A graded scale from A to E for passed and F for not passed will be used.

The exam will be jointly marked by an internal and an external examiner. The external examiner will read a selection of the exam papers and collaborate with the internal examiner in a way that benefits all the students.